Listen to My Story
by Doc Omalley
Summary: In an adventure parallel to Kingdom Hearts, Tidus and Wakka join Max Goof and P.J. to defeat a massive Heartless called Sin. In order to do so, they must travel to other worlds and face their own personal demons along the way. Please read and review!


Hi! This is my very first story posted here. Here's a brief summary.

_Sora, Riku and Kairi are not the only ones to make off the Destiny Islands. Tidus and Wakka also make it and are forced into their own battle with the Heartless. Donald and Goofy are not the only adventurers to leave Disney Castle. Max Goof and P.J., running from their problems, meet up with Tidus and Wakka. Meanwhile, Maleficent sends her subordinate, Pete, off to gain control over a massive Heartless simply called Sin. But what is Sin's connection to Tidus? Who is this mysterious man, Auron, who Tidus seems to know? _

Isterested? Read on!

Disclaimer - I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Final Fantasy X.

It would be wonderful if you al lcould read and drop a comment, suggestion for me. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

_  
Listen to my story. This may be our last chance._

_I'm sitting here watching this place crumble around me. I've done what I set out to do. Heh. Funny. I say that, but when I first set out, I didn't know what was happening. Now, I can't imagine my life going any differently. And as much despair as I've felt over the course of my journey, and as many hard choices as I've had to make, I wouldn't trade it for anything._

_My name is Tidus. I'm fourteen years old. Used to be, that was about all there was to say about me. Well...almost. It's stupid, I think, but I'm famous in a way thanks to my dad, Jecht. He was the captain of the Destiny Islands Thelassas; one of the most successful Blitzball teams in the world. Everybody loved him...Except me. I always hated him. He was always so stuck on himself. And when he did bother to pay me any attention, it was just to tell me that I wasn't good enough. Anyways, one day, he and his team left the islands for the big tournament in Zanarkand. They never arrived there and they never came back to the islands. Everyone was sad. Outwardly, I pretended to be too. But inwardly, I just kept thinking about how this was that happiest I had ever been. After it became apparent that he wasn't coming back, my mom just sort of shut down. And that same year, she died. I went to live with my friend Wakka and his family then. I've pretty much lived happily there for the past nine years._

_Wakka's family is like what every family should be. His mom and dad are happy together and they never neglect their kids or make them feel bad. Wakka and his little brother, Chappu, fight sometimes, but they always make up in the end. _

_Every day after school, we would play two-on-two Blitzball with our friends Sora and Riku while our other friends Selphie and Kairi watch. After that, all of us would always row out to our little private island and hang out until night-time. And during the summer, nothing could tear us away from the island until the sun went down. _

_And that was all there was for the longest time. But all of that would soon change..._

* * *

Tidus grunted as he clashed weapons with his opponent. Not for the first time, he thought that maybe this was a mistake. His opponent was taller, faster and stronger than him. He shoved off with all his might and jumped back to catch his breath. He gritted his teeth. He could feel a stitch forming in his side and it was getting harder and harder to put any power behind his swings. His opponent, in contrast, was smirking and hardly even appeared to be breathing hard. 

"Having fun yet?" his opponent asked.

Tidus smiled despite his fatigue. "The time of my life!" he said and charged without warning. His opponent actually seemed surprised, but he still parried every blow and eventually, pressed his own attack. Tidus tried to keep up, but finally, he missed a parry and he was struck hard in the stomach. He groaned and fell to the ground. "Alright, Riku." he gasped. "You win."

Riku laughed and held out his hand to help Tidus up. "Don't feel too bad. You put up a good fight. And besides, at least you can still beat Wakka."

"Hey, I heard that!" said Wakka. "And don't forget, we still kick your butt in Blitzball, brudda."

Riku shrugged. "Big deal. That's just a game."

Wakka closed his eyes and put his fingers in his ears. "Oh man. I did not just hear that."

Tidus looked out over the water and put his hands up to his eyes. "Hey, here comes Kairi and Selphie's boats."

Riku groaned and slapped his forehead. "Oh man, I'm supposed to be working on the raft! I'll catch you guys later." He dashed off like a bat out of hell.

"So do you think they'll really do it?" asked Wakka. "You think they're gonna make it to another world?"

Tidus laughed. "Doubtful. Heck, I doubt they could even make it to Besaid on that thing."

"I dunno." said Wakka. "Stranger things have happened, ya?"

By that time, Kairi had moored her boat and was walking towards them. "Hey, guys." she said. "Have you seen Sora and Riku around?"

"Riku's around here somewhere and I think Sora's asleep down on the beach."

"That lazy bum." she said with a resigned sigh and set off down the beach.

"Hey you two!" called Selphie cheerfully as she climbed from her boat.

The three of them sat down on the beach and looked out at the waves. "Ah, the breeze feels great." said Selphie.

Tidus glanced down the beach and saw Sora trudging towards them, carrying a log under his arm.

"Hey, what's happening, man?" greeted Wakka.

"Hey, Sora, you feelin' lucky today?" asked Tidus hopefully.

Sora smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I can't. I'm supposed to be looking for stuff for the raft."

Tidus glanced at Wakka and grinned. "Suit yourself. I guess I can't blame you for being afraid."

"Afraid?" demanded Sora, dropping the log and drawing his wooden sword. "I'll show you afraid."

Tidus grinned and picked up his own toy sword. "Now you're talking! You're going down!"

They walked down to the edge of the water and stood facing each other. Selphie raised her hand, held it in the air for a moment and then dropped it shouting, "Go!"

Tidus and Sora dashed at each other and within seconds, were clashing fiercely. Unlike with Riku, Tidus and Sora were about evenly balanced. Sora was a little bit taller, but Tidus was faster and their strength was about equal. But whether he was still tired form his bout with Riku or whether he was just unlucky...THUD! He had dashed at Sora, but Sora had side-stepped at the last second and landed a sharp blow on Tidus's back. Tidus went face-first into the sand. "And Sora is the winner! The crowd is going nuts" Sora imitated the sound of a cheering crowd.

"Yeah, yeah." Tidus grumbled, brushing sand off. "Man. I'm really off today."

_Don't you dare cry, boy._ said a voice. His head shot up and he looked wildly around. The voice hadn't belonged to any of his friends. But he knew the voice all the same.

"Is something wrong, brudda?" asked Wakka.

"N-no. It's nothing." said Tidus. "I just remembered something I forgot to do. See you guys later."

It was just his imagination. It had to be.

* * *

_That's what I kept telling myself. _

_Besides, I was a little stressed anyways. The next day was going to be the anniversary of the day my old man vanished. I'd have to put up with hearing all about it on the news and with people talking about it in the streets. I mean give me a break. You'd figure nine years would be enough time for people to forget something like that. _

_Just my imagination. _

_Yeah...that's what I kept telling myself._

* * *

Max Goof awoke with a yawn in his room in Disney Castle. He glanced groggily at the clock. It was already nearly half-past eleven. He frowned slightly. How in the world had he managed to sleep this late? The night before, he and his dad had one of their terrible fights. And when that happened, He was usually awoken early by his dad making some huge breakfast. As if that could make up for everything. _Maybe he's really mad at me this time._ Max thought. _Not like I really care._ he added quickly. He quickly got dressed and opened his door. He wasn't surprised to find a note tacked to the door written in his father's untidy hand-writing. This was another of the man's annoying habits; Leaving Max with a list of Things to Do. As if he didn't have enough to worry about, studying Magic and trying to maintain some semblance of a life at the same time. 

Pulling it down, he started to read.

_Dear Max,_

_It's early, so I don't wanna wake ya. Me and Donald have to go away on an important mission off world for the King. I don't know how long we'll be gone, so take care until I get back. The Queen and Daisy'll look after ya. Hope to see ya real soon._

_Love,_

_Dad_

Max had to read the letter several times before he fully absorbed it. It was no secret that the King had been making frequenttrips off world. Nobody really knew why, just that it was important. But he had no idea that it was important enough to pull the Captain of the Guard and the Court Mage away from the Castle.

Max jumped in the air and whooped loudly. This was the opportunity he had waited for his entire teenage life. He couldn't even remember a time when his humiliating dolt of a father hadn't been there. Everyone knew what a moron Goofy was. And the only reason he was Captain of the Guard was because of his friendship with the King. Because of this, Max had put up with much grief from the other kids at the Mage Academy and he was extremely unpopular.

But not any more. He grabbed his trunk from his closet and threw his stuff inside. He also grabbed his Mage's Staff, just in case. After all, he would be living on a new world. Best to be prepared for anything.

* * *

The next day, Tidus got up before the sun even rose and went out to the island. He resolved to stay until after the sun set just so that he wouldn't have to hear the name Jecht even once. 

_That's it, boy. Run away from your problems. Go cry like you always do._

"Shut up." he whispered at the voice. The voice laughed at him.

Fortunately, the voice didn't make itself heard the rest of the morning. The sky was just moving from red to blue when someone behind him said, "Hey, brudda, mind if I join you?"

He shrugged and Wakka sat down on the beach next to him. "Thinkin' about your old man?" he asked.

Tidus grunted an affirmative. This was exactly what he had come here to avoid. But at least the others knew not to hero-worship around him.

"Must be hard, hearin' people talk about it, even after all these years, ya?" Wakka continued.

Tidus shrugged again. "I don't care." he said untruthfully.

Wakka shook his head and laughed humorlessly. "Sure you don't. Brudda, I see you do this year after year. You let the memory of your old man tear you down 'til you're about an inch tall. It's the same thing he did to you when he was still around. You need to try and get past this."

Tidus stood and brushed the sand off of himself. "Look, Wakka, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I'm really fine."

Wakka sighed. "Alright. Just keep what I said in mind. Okay, brudda?"

* * *

_No matter what I did, I couldn't push Wakka's words out of my head. But what did he know? He couldn't possibly understand._

* * *

Max ducked around a pillar as he heard voices coming. He didn't think it wise to be caught sneaking around in the general direction of the Gummi Hangar, carrying a suitcase. Although if he was caught, he did have a cover story in mind; He was planning on spending a while at his friend P.J.'s house. 

P.J., in reality, was actually meeting him at the Gummi Hangar. He too was looking to run as far away from Disney Castle as he could get. Several years ago, his father, Pete, commander of the Gummi Fleet, had been arrested and banished to another dimension for trying to overthrow the King. And for that, poor P.J. had earned the disdain of practically everyone. P.J. had been the one who had come up with the plan, when Max first told him that he wanted to run away, to steal a ship from the hangar and fly it to other worlds. He had been taught all about piloting from his father and he was fairly certain he could get them out without anyone realizing it right away.

As Max hid, Queen Minnie and Lady Daisy walked by quickly, speaking in hushed tones. He caught the words "King" and "Heartless" before they were out of earshot. As soon as the coast was clear, he ducked back out and continued on his way. Fortunately, he met nobody else along the way.

Making his way out into the garden, he snuck around the castle-shaped hegde to where the Gummi Hangar entrance was. There, glancing around nervously, was P.J.

"Hey! You!" Max said in a low voice.

P.J. jumped about three feet in the air. "I-I'm sorry, sir! I was just..." He stopped when he heard Max laughing. "Hey, that's not funny, dude!" he said.

"Nope. It was hilarious!" Max said, grinning. "You ready to go?"

P.J. sighed. "I guess. But Max, do you really think we're doing the right thing?"

"No," Max responded truthfully, "but anything has to be better than staying here."

"You're right." said P.J. "Let's go."

Their first task started immediately as they entered the hangar. They had to find a way to get the engineers, Chip and Dale, out of the hangar. So, Max opened his pack and pulled out a box of fire-crackers. Then, he attached an extra long fuse to one of the fire-crackers. He set it at the top of the stairs and lit the fuse.

"Come on! Hurry!" he said to P.J.

They dashed down the spiral stair-case and made it to the door at the bottom right as a loud series of bangs sounded. Max and P.J. both ducked beside the door-frame as the Chipmunks came running out to investigate.

"Whatever it is, it's up there!" squeaked Chip. "Come on!" They went scampering off and Max and P.J. ducked into the hangar.

"Bingo!" P.J. said.

Sitting on the launch pad was a red, yellow and white Gummi Ship of the Highwind design. They dashed to the edge of the platform, jumped and landed in the open cockpit.

"Give me a minute and I'll have this puppy up and running!" said P.J.

Max kept glancing over at the door to make sure that the Chipmunks weren't returning prematurely. After what seemed like an eternity, the ship hummed to life.

"Star yourself in!" P.J. said.

Max did so and the ship began to rise.

"Hey, someone's stealing one of the Gummi Ships!" cried Dale as the Chipmunks returned.

"Stop, thieves!" Chip shouted futilely.

"See ya, suckers!" Max shouted.

P.J. began coutning down. "3...2...1...BLASTOFF!"

Suddenly, in front of the ship there appeared an arrow pointing down and the Gummi ship plummeted through a hole in the ground.

_That's it! We're done for! _Max thought, but then they popped out into space. _Oh...never mind._

P.J. righted the ship and soon, they were light-years away from Disney Castle.

* * *

Tidus awoke on the beach with a start. He had been having some kind of bizarre dream involving Wakka and Kairi waltzing down the beach while Selphie, Riku and Sora sang and played instruments. He frowned, noticing how dark it was. 

"Musta slept longer than I thought." he muttered to himself. He sighed. Wakka's mom was going to kill him if he had missed dinner. He stood up and started for the docks when a gust of wind came up out of nowhere and knocked him over. The sky overhead suddenly grew even darker as clouds appeared rapidly, covering the moon and the stars. Peals of lightning and claps of thunder split the sky and the wind was becoming like a gale. He managed to stand and even made his way to an overhang. He panted and worked to catch his breath. Where the heck had this storm come from? Suddenly, movement on the beach caught his attention. A boy was walking slowly down the beach, his long silver hair whipping about his head.

"Riku!" Tidus cried, trying to make himself heard over the gale. But it was no good. Riku passed out of sight. Tidus growled and tried to follow, but a dark violet light suddenly washed over the beach. Tidus looked up into the sky. There, hanging right over the island, was a swirling ball of dark energy. Every second, it seemed to grow bigger and bigger. Before Tidus had a chance to contemplate this further, something happened on the beach to draw his attention. Dozens of individual black shadows had formed and were heading straight towards him. As he watched, the shadows grew out of the ground and formed into little bug-like creatures with glowing yellow eyes. They all eyed him almost hungrily and leapt at him. He closed his eyes, preparing for the end, but there was a sudden slashing noise and when he opened his eyes again, the creatures were gone, replaced by a man in a long blood-red robe with a collar that covered the lower half of his face. The upper half of his face showed a crooked nose which appeared to have been broken on multiple occasions and one eye, the other closed by a long jagged scar. One on the man's arms was tucked inside the robe, almost like a sling, and the other held a long curved sword, propped over one shoulder.

"Auron?" Tidus cried incredulously.

Auron nodded and a shimmering blue sword with a red-tasseled hilt suddenly appeared on the ground before him. "Take it." the older man said gruffly.

Tidus was utterly shocked and perplexed, but he did as he was ordered.

Suddenly, more of the shadow monsters appeared.

"Auron, what are these things?" Tidus cried.

"Heartless!" the man replied. "Fight!"

Auron jumped into the midst of the Heartless and began slaughtering them systematically. Tidus, however, was not quite so graceful and he received more than a few cuts from the monster's sharp claws.

Soon, the beach was clear of the Heartless, but then, even more appeared.

"We can sit here killing them all day, but it won't do any good." said Auron. "We have to find their leader."

Tidus nodded. "Lead the way."

They made their way around the island, cutting down any Heartless that got in their way. But all of a sudden, a massive crack appeared in the ground at Tidus' feet. He stepped back and turned to run the other way, but he saw that there was no longer another way. The island behind him was gone, replaced by swirling debris. Everything was breaking up and swirling into the dark ball, which now filled the entire sky.

"Auron, what-"

"Look." the man said. Tidus looked over across the chasm and saw someone who could only be Sora holding a giant Key, fighting a massive black monster. As Tidus watched, Sora ran up the monster's arm and landed several shattering blows on its head. The monster pitched forward, knocking Sora off and then it began floating up into the vortex. Sora followed soon after as the platform he stood on vanished.

"Woah!" Tidus cried, grabbing onto a tree as a force began pulling him towards the vortex. Auron stood, calmly looking up into the sky. Out of the vortex came a deep, almost groaning sound "You are sure?" he asked the vortex.

"Auron, help!" Tidus screamed.

Auron looked at him. "Don't be afraid." The tree was gone now and everything was chaos around him though he still heard Auron's last words clearly. "This is _your_ story."

* * *

Confused? Well, don't worry. All questions wil lbe answered. And don't worry. I have an explanation for why Tidus knows Auron but Sora doesn't in KH2. Hope you enjoyed reading this! 


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